Set 43 – Five New Words For Feb 12

ETYMOLOGY:
After Dogberry, a constable in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, in which he goes about his blundering ways while mouthing malapropisms. Earliest documented use: 1801.

USAGE:
“Why doesn’t he do something, then? Ignorant Dogberry! Useless bumpkin! Calls himself a copper and doesn’t even know where to start!”
Edmund Crispin; The Glimpses of the Moon; Gollancz; 1977.

“The mayor of Bangor, Maine, vetoed a time-altering resolution passed by its city council … for which Railway Age lampooned him in an editorial that began ‘A Dogberry who holds the office of mayor.'”
Jack Beatty; Age of Betrayal; Knopf; 2007.